Plein air painting 73

The river Itchen, in east Southampton is wide at this point, in the suburb of Northam, just before it joins Southampton Water itself in the main area of the docks at the city. Many small boats of various shapes and sizes can be seen here moored in the river. There are also a high number of marine based industries on either side of the river. This view is from Northam bridge with Bitterne in the background.
The boats were a challenge because over the period of time painting them, would be moving about.
Painted in late September 2022 on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5", in oils.

Plein air painting 68

Shamrock Quay in the Northam area of Southampton, UK, is home to many marine based industries and places for placing various vessels in dry storage. One Friday afternoon in August 2022, this boat was painted in the late summer sun, surrounded by pieces of equipment used to allow a boat to be held upright out of water. Painted in oils on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5".

 Plein air painting 19

A boat moored at Shamrock Quay, Southampton on the River Itchen. In the distance can be seen the Itchen Toll bridge, opened in 1977. Painted in June 2021 during one afternoon, in oils on mounting board, sized at 11.5" x 9.5".

Plein air painting 01

boat in yard on stilts

Painted in August on a Sunday morning, this small oil painting (12" x 9") shows a boat on stilts undergoing maintenance. The location is a small yard called Shamrock Quay in Southampton. It took about 80mins and is done on primed mounting board.

 

Men At Northam Southampton Boat Yard - WIP stages

Men At Northam Southampton Boat Yard - WIP stages

WIP stages of boats at a Northam boat yard oil painting.

The Northam area of the city of Southampton in Hampshire, features a number of boat yards as it is located on the river Itchen. This painting, completed in January 2019 features a scene of a drydock with men preparing to use a crane to place a boat in to the river from the dry land.

The picture above shows a number of stages of how the painting was created. The first stage shows the drawing which is done with dark, brown acrylic paint on top of a wash of a similar colour. The dark tones within the scene are painted in as are very light in tone subjects, such as the sky, using white acrylic paint. The middle panel shows work moved on where now oil paint has been used to indicate the underpainting, often in darker hues of the final intended colours, and is achieved by using diluted, thin paint. Detail is still quite basic at this stage. The last panel features the final, finished artwork. It can be seen that the colours are now correct, having been applied with thick oil paint and also details regarding the surfaces and lighting, are now included.

The painting can be seen on this link.

Passengers Boarding The Hamble Water Taxi In Hampshire - oil painting

Passengers Boarding The Hamble Water Taxi In Hampshire - oil painting

Oil painting showing the river taxi in operation

This painting, created in oils during summer 2018 shows eager passengers awaiting to board a 'taxi' service one sunny summers morning. The ferry operates on the river Hamble in Hamshire, in the south of the UK, and operates between two villages on each side of the river, Hamble and Warsash.

The painting is sized at 28” x 20”. The artwork can be viewed in closeup on this link.

Twin propellers on blue boat - acrylic painting

Twin propellers on blue boat - acrylic painting

acrylic painting - 'Twin propellers on blue boat'

This marine based piece of artwork was created in May 2018 and painted in acrylics on stretched water-colour paper, sized at 16” x 12”.

It is based on a photo taken one morning at a local boat yard, and the subject was a boat resting on jacks out of the water awaiting refurbishment. The blue hull, which was rusty, and the propellers showed lots of deposits from marine life living on the boat exterior, and gave the propellers an interesting blue cast. The day was sunny some it was interesting to see the light playing over the complicated forms of the propellers blades.

The picture can be seen here on this link.

Weston Shore Boats At Yacht Club, Southampton - acrylic painting

Weston Shore Boats At Yacht Club, Southampton - acrylic painting

Weston Shore Boats At Yacht Club, Southampton - acrylic painting

This scene shows a boat yard at Weston Shore, Hampshire, near to Southampton Water. The yard is attached to a local sailing club and on this hot summers day can be seen a large number of boats and yachts under cover. Some have not moved for some time judging by the amount of grass under the wheels of the trailer.
The painting is done on stretched paper, measuring 20” x 16”, and painted in acrylic paint during July 2017.
The painting can be seen in greater detail via this link.

Beach Boat Under Cover - WIP

Beach Boat Under Cover - WIP

Beach boat under covers -WIP

This picture shows four stages in the creation of a painting called 'Beach boat under covers'. It is painted in acrylics on paper, and is sized at 16" x12". The first panel shows the drawing, drawn in acrylic brown paint on the watercolour paper which has been stretched. The second panel shows work on placing the base (underpainting) colours down, slightly darker than the intended finished colour.In the third panel we see the colours and detail becoming more refined, with the forth panel showing the finished painting.
The location is at Hengistbury Head beach, near to Christchurch, Dorset, with the water being Christchurch bay and the small suburb of Mudeford on the land beyond. 
The finished painting can be seen in greater detail here.

working on closeup 23

working on closeup 23

 A small snippet of a painting featuring a boat at Hengistbury Head, Dorset....

WIP boat under cover

 

boats on jacks in yard - water color sketch

boats on jacks in yard - water color sketch

This water colour sketch was done on a sunny June day. It shows a number of boats all standing on jacks and resting in the sunshine. The location is a local boat yard in Northam, Southampton which is situated on the east side of the city and has the River Itchen running beside it. When I was looking for a subject to paint I found this gap in a line of boats in the yard and thought I would plonk myself there to view the scene as shown, as it is unlikely that space would be used for anything while I'm sitting there for an hour. But just I had finished doing a rough drawing and preparing the paints one of the yard workers said that I would have to move because a boat was imminently about to fill that space. 5 mins later once the boat had been maneuvered in I was then able to sit myself in a space a few feet away from my original position and carry on, though it is strange how a slight shift in position can throw your observations as I was now looking at a scene which the drawing did not fully show.

collection of boats on jacks - water color sketch

Blue boat - watercolour sketch

Blue boat - watercolour sketch

This small (10" x 7") sketch, that took about an hour to do, shows a boat moored within a marina in east Southampton during an overcast June day. This was my first venture in to watercolour painting for many years, in fact the early 1990s was probably the last time I touched the medium. It is not a perfect example of the craft but gradually as I proceeded with the project, elements of how to handle watercolour did start coming back to me. It is a very different medium to the acrylic/ oil paints I am used to!

Blue boat - water colour sketch

Boats on Riverside Park Bank

Boats on Riverside Park Bank

This painting was created in November 2015. It shows a summer evening waterfront scene on the river bank at Riverside park, Southampton. The river flowing through the scene is the River Itchen. At this location on the suburbs of Southampton are a number of properties with gardens backing on to the river. On the river itself are a number of boats resting on the mud as the tide is out.
The painting is done on heavy paper using acrylic painting. It is 16" x 12" in size.

Boats on Riverside Park bank

Old Boat Propeller

Old Boat Propeller

This painting shows an old propeller attached to an old wooden fishing boat. She was built in the 1930s and was under going repair and preservation in a boat yard in Southampton. The surface of the propeller was very worn, weathered and covered with old algae and muck that had become bleached in the sun. This made an interesting contrast to the rest of the scene with the wooden hull largely in shade. I painted the picture quite loosely and deliberately did not become fussy with the details, just using a larger brush than normal to keep thing from becoming too tight. The hull had been partly sanded down and so revealed lots of different reds and blues coloured paintwork from its life in the water, plus the bare wood itself. The contrast to the many pieces of bright blue coloured synthetic rope was pleasing.

The painting is 12” x 10” and painted on a canvas board using acrylics.
LINK

#marine #art #boat #propeller #sailing

Old Boat propeller acrylic painting

 

Boat Yard Boat 01

Boat Yard Boat 01

Acrylic boat yard painting 01

This painting was done in acrylics on a canvas sized at 20” x 16” during late September. It features the stern of a boat laid up on wooden poles for a few years at a local boat yard in Southampton, Hampshire. I always find the hull on ships of interest, in particular the rudder and propeller. I had tried to draw it a few weeks before using a digital drawing program on a tablet. Unfortunately the battery went flat and I only got part way through. I did take some photographs during the visit and this painting is based on one of those. The painting took about two days to do.

Boat Yard 01 WIP

BOAT YARD 01 wip

Acrylic painting WIP boat yard 01

This image shows a work in progress on a painting of the stern of a boat laid up at Shamrock Marina, Southampton. The River Itchen would be behind the viewer. It is a 20" x 16" painting, done in acrylics on an old canvas I had lying around, one of a number that needed to be used up. I had tried to do a sketch originally on my Surface pro Tablet but although I did manage to do a sketch it proved difficult to do because of the daylight shining on to the screen so you could not see what you were doing. I went back the following day and took a photograph of the scene with the plan of doing a painting anyway. You can see the three stages involved with the final result on the last panel. I tend to work from a red ground for most of my paintings. I tried to keep it quite loose but I found myself getting to use ever smaller brushes for the details to show the construction of the vessel. It is still quite loose for me however and does skip some details. The painting was done in late September 2015, my first painting at this size for about a year.
The finished painting can be seen here. 
#boat #painting #industry #WIP #art

Bitterne Boats Southampton

Bitterne Boats Southampton

Bitterne Boats Southampton acrylic painting

This painting shows a view of a number of boats, some of them wrecks, on the River Itchen in Southampton, Hampshire. It is based on a number of photographs taken from Northam Bridge and looking toward the hilly suburb of Bitterne. The time is a summer evening with calm waters and the tide going out from this tidal estuary section of the river, revealing a land of mud and algae, and long lost sunken boats. The late evening light gives the scene a slight golden glow.

The painting is done in acrylics on a canvas board measuring 20” x 16”, and was painted in autumn 2014.

#boats #art #marine #Hampshire #Southampton

old propeller acrylic painting WIP

Old propeller acrylic painting WIP

This image shows a WIP of a small painting, 8” x 10” of a propeller on a boat undergoing restoration. I had done a small digital sketch about 2 weeks earlier here, but this was to be a painting done in acrylics. The initial stage of the painting in red ground with the drawing traced out in brown acrylic paint is on the left. In the middle is a halfway stage with most of the elements in the scene blocked in with some acrylic paint. The right hand image shows the finished painting. I intended to do the painting quite loosely so I used quite largish brushes on this small canvas to stop me from getting in to details with little brushes. Dominant brush strokes and dabs of colour was the intention here. I spent about 4 hours painting the image, after about ½ hour drawing out the subject.
#boat #art #painting #boatyard #propeller

WIP boat propeller painting

Digital sketch of Shamrock Quay, Southampton

Digital sketch of Shamrock Quay

This small digital was done one Friday evening in late September when there was an unexpected Indian summer bathing the country in fine sunny weather. I took my little stool and the surface pro computer with me, to sketch this little scene from Shamrock Quay, in Southampton, looking over the River Itchen toward Bittern on the other side. The weather was pleasant and I was hoping the later in the day lighting conditions may enable me to look at the screen more clearly on the Surface pro's glossy screen, a constant problem with out door digital art work. Sadly it made no difference and I still could not see exactly what I was doing, but something did come out at the end of the day. I think the sketch does give a little of the atmosphere of the late afternoon light just beginning to darken for the evening. Boats sitting on water are eternally appealing anyway.The software used on the tablet was 'Auto Sketchbook pro'.
#digital #sketchbookpro #hampshire #boats #art

digital sketch of Shamrock Quay summer evening

Digital sketch of boat on poles at marina

Digital sketch of boat on poles at marina

Today I did a digital sketch from life of a small boat on props at a local marina in Southampton. I used 'Autodesk Sketchbook Pro' for this. It was the first time I had used the 'pro' version after upgrading from the free version a few days ago. The main feature, for me, is that you are now able to choose your document or canvas size. Before it was restricted to the size of your screen on your tablet or device. You also get some more materials and tools to play around with and of I will investigate further at some other time. The boat was loosely sketch in with a pencil and the intention was just go around tightening up the drawing for my allotted period drawing. Instead however I decided to add some rough colour in to the artwork. The day itself was during the start of Autumn so the temperature was getting milder now. It was also a grey and damp day with a few spots of rain falling on to the screen of my 'Microsoft Surface Pro'. The usual difficulty was there of not being able to see what I was doing, because of the shiny screen reflecting the sky above. Also the battery was not fully charged so I had a limited time to do something. It took about 30mins to do and it is ok for what it is. If I had been able to carry on I would have put in some suggestion of the other boats, mainly on the left hand side and more precise colour and detail. 

#boat #sketchbookpro #marina #southampton #art